141 Worldwide-Sercon merger now official

After the final approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), Bates Asia is merging its activation arm in India, 141 Worldwide, with Sercon, one of the country’s marketing services companies. The merged company will be known as 141 Sercon.

141 Sercon will combine the strategic planning and specialised creative functions along with its digital marketing operations to assist brands achieve various below-the-line objectives. The merged company will meet the requirement of brands that demand a judicious marketing spend on focussed BTL initiatives.

Digby Richards, chief operating officer, Bates Asia, says “The combination of 141 Sercon provides our clients with intensive brand activation skills and expertise. The union enhances our overall plan at Bates Asia to build brands through a range of non-traditional marketing solutions.”

Kamath remarks, “Marketing services contribute 40 per cent of our group’s revenues. This figure is expected to grow to 50 per cent in the next three years. Vijay (Singh) and Rajesh (Ghatge) are terrific leaders and they will play a key part in the management of 141 Sercon.”

141Sercon will form part of the Bates Asia offering. The offering now includes Bates David Enterprise as the ATL arm, Wall Street, as the outdoor arm and now 141 Sercon as the marketing services arm.